On Monday we told you what the odds makers in Las Vegas are predicting for the 76ers this season and it wasn’t pretty. Then yesterday we hit you with Philadunkia’s own breakdown of the upcoming Sixers season which included opinions from national NBA “Insiders”. Not much of that post was very rosy either. Today for the third and final installment of our 2010-11 76ers preview series, we reached out to a host of great local basketball minds in order to get their quick opinions on what lies ahead for the 7-6 this season. These Philadunkia nation hoop heads know the game extremely well and as a bonus for us, they also follow the Sixers very closely. In short, these guys know what they are talking about when it comes to Philadunkia’s home team.

Unfortunately for Sixers fans, the forecast for the 76ers in 2010-11 from the local Sixers gurus is just as gloomy as the predictions from Sin City, Philadunkia.com and the national “experts”.

Read on if you can handle the pain.

Dannie at Recliner GM

I’ll just keep it simple: the Sixers are going to be bad. Be prepared for a long, frustrating season…32 wins.

Dick Jerardi at the Daily News

Biggest issue will be whether all the pieces can fit together to make a team capable of being competitive most nights…35 (wins)

Tim Legler – LaSalle Alum; Philly area resident and ESPN NBA Analyst

36 wins. I would have gone lower but I believe in the basketball IQ of Doug Collins. He will make adjustments and continue to push them to defend. The bottom line is that the Sixers don’t have an identity in terms of style of play and they need to hope Holliday can develop at warp speed to make it interesting

Phil Jasner at the Daily News

30-52. A longer season than anyone anticipated.

Mike Missanelli from 97.5 The Fanatic

If they win 25 games with this team, that would be a miracle.

Phil Martelli – Head Men’s Basketball Coach, Saint Joseph’s Univ.

The Sixers will play with an organized energy that will start to excite a slumbering fan base…Wins will be tough to come by – # 36.

Ricky at sixers4guidos.com

I think the key is having low expectations. Without Dalembert the team got significantly worse under the boards, I think the struggles to rebound the ball can reach dramatic levels. Sixers didn’t solve their “traditional” outside shooting issues, also. This said, the overall defense can only improve, for obvious reasons, and I think Collins will keep control of the locker room, all things that Jordan sucked at. It’s gonna be another long & pretty dark season… how abot 33-49 ??

Philadunkia.com’s scribes say…

Carey Smith

My expectations for the 76ers are pretty high this season and many others may believe that to be unreasonable. However if you really think about it, last year was an absolute train wreck — a twelve game losing streak, major injury problems (Louis, Thad, Brand, Speights all missed significant time), horrific defense, infighting and a cocky, stubborn, knucklehead of a head coach. Yet despite all of those obstacles, this group somehow managed to win 27 games in 2009-10. Don’t get me wrong, 27 up and 55 down is not a good record, in fact it’s awful, but I believe it could have been worse.

So with everyone healthy now and in better shape, the emergence of Jrue Holiday, the locker room cancer removed (Dalembert) and a new head coach (Doug Collins) that actually can spell defense and discipline, I expect that the Sixers will have a much better season in 2010-11. I certainly don’t think that we are ready to challenge Boston, Miami and Orlando in the East, but I don’t see any reason this team can not win 40 games and challenge for the 8th playoff spot.

Tom Sunnergren

The Sixers will again finish below expectations, a pretty impressive bit of limboing given how low they are. The Holiday, Turner, Iguodala triumvirate will perform, but the frontcourt is the brick that will drown them slowly. 23-59

Michael Kaskey-Blomain

39-43…Despite sporting some new parts, this season’s incarnation of the Sixers, is largely similar to that seen in recent seasons. The offense will be spearheaded by second year stud, Jrue Holiday, whose continuing development provides promise for the future of the franchise, but does not guarantee success this season. Thus, the offense will rely heavily on Andre Igoudala and highly-touted rookie Evan Turner, a potentially dominant duo. Turner’s development, however, will take time, and Iguodala has already demonstrated that he cannot carry the offensive load alone, leading to a lack of a legitimate go-to guy. Their lack of a legitimate post presence is cause for further concern, unless Elton Brand can come back from the dead and post stats similar to those posted during his all-star seasons with the Clippers. Overall, the team has enough talent to compete on any given night, but not enough to truly contend.

Jeff McMenamin

Even with the addition of Evan Turner in the off-season, the Sixers lack the size in the post to be an elite team in the East this season. Starters Spencer Hawes and Elton Brand will be exposed early and often on the defensive end. I expect another year of more questions then answers for this team, but to also be slightly better then they were last year. I predict the Sixers will finish 35-47. Good enough for 2nd in the Atlantic Division and may be able to sneak in as the 8th spot in the East.

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I generally agree..I think the 6ers will be a 30-something win team…that 3rd quarter last night was harendous, but they didn’t quit which I think was a good sign considering the desparity in talent it would’ve been easy for them to fold the tent like they did so many times last year, but they didn’t…There are going to be major issues inside…Miami is a very small team, so they didn’t get taken advantage of on the boards but they will in the future…and it’s going to come to a point where they’re going to have unload some guys in order to get the pieces they are lacking…overall probably in that 30-35 win range